ECI Orders Removal Of Anurag Thakur & Parvesh Singh As BJP Star Campaigners For Delhi Elections

The Election Commission of India on Wednesday ordered the removal of Union Minister Anurag Thakur and  Parvesh Sahib Singh from the list of star campaigners of Bhartiya Janta Party for the general elections to the Legislative Assembly of the NCT of Delhi with immediate effect and until further orders.

This is for their campaign speeches, which were found to have the effect of disturbing communal harmony, resulting in the violation of Model Code of Conduct and the provisions of Representation of Peoples Act.

The Commission had issued show cause notice to Thakur on Tuesday in respect of his comments inciting the crowd to gun down 'traitors' during an election rally. ECI took objection to the Thakur's remark "desh ke gaddaron ko", which incited the response "goli maaron saalo ko" from the crowd.

In the notice, the poll panel expressed the prima facie view that the remarks had the potential of "disturbing communal harmony and aggravating the existing differences between social and religious communities".

The action against Parvesh Sahib Singh, a BJP MP, is for his controversial statements against the persons protesting at Shaheen Bagh against CAA-NRC.

Referring to the protesters, the BJP legislator had reportedly said "they will enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters".

"If the BJP comes to power on February 11, you will not find a single protester within an hour. And within a month, we will not spare a single mosque built on government land", the MP had reportedly said.